Many species approach predators to harass and drive them away, even though mobbing a predator can be deadly. However, not all species display this behavior, and those that do can exhibit different behaviors while mobbing different predators. Here we experimentally assessed the role of social and ecological traits on the expression of mobbing behavior in a bird community in SE Brazil (n=157 species). We exposed birds to models of two morphologically similar diurnal owls that...

In species where females store sperm, males may try to influence paternity by the strategic placement of sperm within the female's sperm storage organ. Sperm may be mixed or layered in storage organs, and this can influence sperm use beyond a ‘fair raffle’. In some insects, sperm from different matings is packaged into discrete packets (spermatodoses), which retain their integrity in the female's sperm storage organ (spermatheca), but little is known about how these may...

Variation in the vertebrate major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes is crucial for fighting pathogen assault. Because new alleles confer a selective advantage, MHC should readily introgress between species, even under limited hybridization. Using replicated transects through two hybrid zones between strongly reproductively isolated European newts, Lissotriton montandoni and L. vulgaris, we demonstrated recent and ongoing MHC class I and II introgression in the Carpathian region. The extent of introgression correlated with the age of contact....

According to theory, sexual selection in males may efficiently purge mutation load of sexual populations, reducing or fully compensating “the cost of males”. For this to occur, mutations not only need to be deleterious to both sexes, they also must affect males more than females. A frequently overlooked problem is that relative strength of selection on males vs. females may vary between environments, with social conditions being particularly likely to affect selection in males and...

Ecologically distinct species may respond to landscape changes in different ways. In addition to basic ecological data, the extent of the geographic range has been successfully used as an indicator of species sensitivity to anthropogenic landscapes, with widespread species usually found to be less sensitive compared to range-restricted species. In this study, we investigate connectivity patterns of two closely related but ecologically distinct newt species – the range-restricted, Lissotriton montandoni and the widespread, L. vulgaris...

Sustaining beneficial gut symbioses presents a major challenge for animals, Including holometabolous insects. Social insects may meet such challenges through behavioral symbiont transfer and transgenerational inheritance through colony founders. We address such potential through colony-wide explorations across 13 eusocial, holometabolous ant species in the genus Cephalotes. Through amplicon sequencing and qPCR, we show that previously characterized worker microbiomes are largely conserved across adult castes, that adult microbiomes exhibit strong trends of phylosymbiosis, and that Cephalotes...

Technological developments now make it possible to employ many markers for many individuals in a phylogeographic setting, even for taxa with large and complex genomes such as salamanders. The banded newt (genus Ommatotriton) from the Near East has been proposed to contain three species (O. nesterovi, O. ophryticus and O. vittatus) with unclear phylogenetic relationships, apparently limited interspecific gene flow and deep intraspecific geographic mtDNA structure. We use parallel tagged amplicon sequencing to obtain 177...

Microbiome constitutes and important axis of individual variation that, together with genes and the environment, influences an individual’s physiology and fitness. Microbiomes are dependent not only on an individual’s body condition but also on external factors, such as diet or stress levels, and as such can be involved into feedbacks between the external ecological factors and internal physiology. In our study we used a wild population of blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) to investigate the impact...

Alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) are correlated suites of sexually selected traits that are likely to impose differential physiological costs on different individuals. While moderate activity might be beneficial, animals living in the wild often work at the margins of their resources and performance limits. Individuals using ARTs may have divergent capacities for activity. When pushed beyond their respective capacities, they may experience condition loss, oxidative stress, and molecular damage that must be repaired with limited...

X-ray diffraction data

We assess the role of the Carpathians as an extra-Mediterranean glacial refugium for the crested newt Triturus cristatus. We combine a multilocus phylogeography (one mitochondrial protein-coding gene, three nuclear introns, and one major histocompatibility complex gene) with species distribution modelling (projected on current and Last Glacial Maximum climate layers). All genetic markers consistently show extensive genetic variation within and genetic depletion outside the Carpathians. The species distribution model suggests that most of the current range...

Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) genes encode proteins involved in the recognition of parasite-derived antigens. Their extreme polymorphism is presumed to be driven by coevolution with parasites. Host-parasite coevolution was also hypothesised to optimize within-individual MHC diversity at the intermediate level. Here, we use unique data on lifetime reproductive success (LRS) of female collared flycatchers to test whether LRS is associated with within-individual MHC class II diversity. We also examined the association between MHC and infection...